For the gamers among you, most of you realise that my gaming posts don’t do all that well. There are but a handful of us who play around here and many say it doesn’t suit the tone of the blog (Look all my posts can’t be about quacks, horrible people and religious fanatics). I am aware that these are some of my least read posts (It’s why I label them under Hags of Lag – Those who don’t want to read about digital shootemups can ignore the piece).
For those who are unaware, the Extra Life is a charity where gamers do what they love and fundraise money for charity. It was seen as a way for the gaming community to give back. It was seen as a way to make games do some good and be more than just about games and having fun.
Today around 7 to 9 hours ago (I have been asleep) the donation page had shut down for Extra Life. Initially this was thought of as a glitch.
UPDATE: the cause of our downtime has been determined, Extra Life was subjected to a DDoS attack. Please read this important note from Jeromy:
Dear friends,
We’ve discovered that the Extra Life website experienced a DDoS attack against our datacenter. I am not sure what kind of person would DDoS a charitable initiative.
I am so sorry that you are going through this frustration today. Our entire team is purely heartbroken that someone would do this. But it has happened.
As frustrating as this is for everyone involved, it pales in comparison to what the kids we’re trying to save go through. That reality, for me personally, is about the only thing keeping me somewhat calm right now.
I am very angry and very sorry. You deserve better than this. The kids deserve better than this. Extra Life has given a lot of us some of the happiest moments in our lives.
This is not one of those moments.
Please hang with us through this.
It is important that we spread the word. Please get on every form of social media you can and tell your friends what happened. We can overcome this together.
Be ready to make up for lost time and share the news when we go live!
Sincerely,
Jeromy “Doc” Adams
It’s not. It was a DDOS attack. This is an unacceptable thing. At the best of times a DDOS is an irritation. A wrench in the operation of a website. Here? Here the DDOS was designed specifically to interrupt with fundraising. They have lost a good 6 hours of fundraising at this point but the website is back up.
Fancy going and giving some kids a hand? If you are a gamer (or not) and wish to donate the link’s here. The live stream is still going on as we speak so you can watch. And the current total is $ 3,000,000 DESPITE the hack.
Extra Life’s a fundraiser charity. The wealth is given to other charities with the idea that it should help children.